If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends
by veteranfangirl
Summary: Two short little ficlets about Ferio spending time with the other Knights when Fuu is otherwise occupied.


Two short little ficlets about Ferio spending time with the other Knights when Fuu is otherwise occupied. Features a personal favorite, drinking buddies Ferio/Umi. (I apologize if I get the Spice Girls song stuck in your head. It keeps happening to me too, whenever I think of this fic, so.)

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There was an old saying that your lover's friends were your friends, too. Ferio had always thought that was ridiculous. He decided who was and wasn't his friend. But he was finding it to be true. Even though, every visit, as soon as the Knights' feet touched the ground and the magic faded around them, Fuu always made a beeline right for him, nothing was as important to her as Hikaru and Umi. He'd known it for a long time.

Part I: Ryuuzaki Umi

Sometimes when Fuu was studying with Guru Clef and he was bored, he'd seek out Umi. They'd warmed to each other somewhat since the days in the Forest of Silence. Sharing a bottle of wine and throwing spitballs from the balconies overlooking the gardens was one of their favorite past times when neither could tear Fuu away from her books.

"Why does she want to learn to read our language anyway?" Ferio peeked over the rail of the balcony to make sure LaFarga hadn't figured out where the spitballs were coming from.

Umi rolled her eyes, leaning against the door frame. "You're such an idiot, Prince."

He shot her a dirty look. She only called him by his title at formal occasions and when she wanted to aggravate him. "Care to elaborate?"

She grinned around her glass of wine. Her second. "You are ridiculous."

"You call that elaborating?" He grabbed the half-empty bottle of wine and drank straight from it, prompting Umi to choke on her drink. Her disgusted expression was exactly his goal. He unceremoniously wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Answer my question or the next spitball has your name on it."

Umi set her glass down at her side, shaking her head. "Think about it," she said slowly, so that he would understand this very difficult concept. "Fuu likes taking apart everything around her, learning about it. It's annoying, really. She sees Cephiran script all the time. Why wouldn't she be interested in learning to read it?" Ferio shrugged. "Besides," Umi continued, "she'll need to be able to read it almost fluently soon."

Ferio's face turned a very satisfying shade of pink. "Why, well... why would she need to?" he stammered, poorly feigning ignorance.

"Oh, Prince," Umi laughed, rolling a spitball between her fingers. It was slightly tinted a reddish purple. "You don't believe girls keep secrets from each other, not about their love lives, do you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Hmm." Umi rolled with catlike grace over to the edge of the balcony, peering through the intricately-carved balusters that held up the rail. She took careful aim and launched her spitball, hoping for the best trajectory to reach LaFarga. It missed, but he heard it fall behind him. He looked up at the balcony opposite them and Umi giggled, biting her lip. "He's gonna go crazy. We can do it, we can break LaFarga. Ferio, cut that out, it's disgusting!"

He pulled the bottle from his lips, frowning. "You've had plenty already."

"Yeah, well, I'm not quite finished. It's too boring today. I need a third to make it to dinner." She reached across him for the bottle but he held it at arm's length, just out of her reach.

"Nope, nope. Your aim is getting terrible."

"You're not my dad." She made a few futile grabbing motions before leaning back and sitting again. "Fine, whatever. I'll have plenty to drink at your wedding."

"W-wedding?" Ferio spluttered. "What's a wedding?"

"Oh, come on. You're a better liar than this."

He threw his hands up. "Okay, fine. You're right. I asked Fuu to marry me."

Umi smiled, victorious. Her eyes softened just a little. "Can I ask why, though?"

Ferio's cheeks were pink and he found himself looking in another direction. "Because I, y'know. I love her."

She shifted her weight so she could more easily grab her nearly-empty glass. "No, I mean... You guys don't do 'weddings' and 'marriage' here. Why'd you ask her to go this route instead of a Cephiran tradition? You're really gonna call her your wife?"

He shrugged, fiddling with his earring. "I thought it'd make her happy. I mean, it's no loss to me. But she'd lose out if I asked her to give up such a significant cultural thing."

Umi polished off her drink. "Well, it does make her happy. No worries."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. She won't shut up about it. Last week it was learning Cephiran script and this week it's marrying Ferio." She smiled. "I'm happy for her, too."

Ferio nudged at her shoulder with his fist. "You're okay. Wanna be the best man?"

"Don't push it. C'mon, if we can't hit LaFarga then we're failures as warriors."

Part II: Shidou Hikaru

Fuu still participated in archery and Umi was still passionate about fencing, but Hikaru's kendo was a part of her everyday life, not just an extracurricular. She took it seriously, as a major part of her life. She liked sparring in Cephiro because there were people who actually sword-fought to stay alive. It was something that she could never get at the dojo.

LaFarga and Lantis were entirely too tall for her to practice against, but Ferio only had a few inches on her, so the task usually fell to him. Normally he tried to get out of it, preferring to spend his time with Fuu, but today Umi was teaching her and Princess Aska to knit, so Fuu suggested he find something else to do, anyway.

He pouted, even as he blocked Hikaru's swing. It wasn't easy. He was more experienced in combat, but her sword was a lot more special than his, being magic and made of escudo and all. It seemed to give her an edge. Or maybe it was just his grumpy mood.

He leapt up, twisting in midair and landing cat-like on his feet, sword ready. As he'd hoped, it caught her off-guard and he managed to charge just enough to knock away her sword. She fell on her butt, her face red and sweaty. She blinked up at him with big cranberry eyes, then smiled at the tip of his blade. "Good one."

He was sweating and flushed himself. He nodded, wiping his brow. "Not so bad yourself," he replied. "I haven't had a good workout like that in a while."

"I'm thirsty now." She took his hand, accepting his help as she got to her feet. She turned, looking back the way they'd come. "We ended up pretty far from the court yard," she said. Turning back to Ferio, she looked over his shoulder, taking in her surroundings. "I've never been to this part of the gardens before."

"No?" Ferio watched, a bit envious, as Hikaru's sword retreated into her glove's orb. He stuck his own blade in the ground. "It's one of my favorite spots. These trees are good to climb in."

Hikaru laughed. "You used to always be in a tree back in the day. Oh, remember how you'd nearly swing from one to the next like Tarzan?" She wiggled her arms and made a weird howling noise.

"What the hell is a Tarzan?"

"That one looks good!" Hikaru blew past him, his question ignored. She grabbed onto a low-hanging branch, swinging up like she was born in a tree, then scrambled higher into the leaves before Ferio could even reach the tree. "Ferio, this is great! You should come up here!"

"That's the plan." He climbed up with a bit more grace, but no less quickly. He reached her in just under a minute. She was straddling a thick branch, looking out over the miles of gardens. "You look comfortable already," he said, gesturing to her skirt.

"Meep!" She pulled it down to cover her dignity, blushing. "Sorry."

He shrugged. "Just thought you'd want to know." He really couldn't see Hikaru in that way, even if he tried. He wasn't sure what got Lantis so hot and bothered about her, but to each his own.

"This is amazing, Ferio!" she gushed. "Oh, look, you can see so far from here!" She tipped her chin up to peer upwards at him on the next branch. "How far do the gardens go?"

He laughed. "Miles. I've lived at the new palace for two years and haven't seen them all."

"Who takes care of them?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like do you have gardeners or servants that water them and prune them and keep them nice and green and pretty?"

"...Water them?"

"Oh." She fell silent for a moment. "You don't even have to water your plants here to keep them healthy? I mean, that makes sense. It never rains." She realized Ferio was staring at her. She leaned back against the trunk, explaining how on Earth, everything needs water to live, including the plants. How the rain, which was a symptom of Cephiro crumbling, was normal and frequent and needed on Earth. And if it didn't rain, you had to water the plants yourself.

"Interesting," was all he had to say. Hikaru talked a lot. No matter what she had to say, she always managed to use as many words as possible. He missed Fuu's quiet companionship when he was with Hikaru for too long.

"Hey, Ferio?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for sparring with me. I know you didn't want to."

"It's not–"

She smiled up at him. "It's okay. You're cool."

His face grew warm. What was he becoming, if Shidou Hikaru could make him blush?

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End


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